Disclaimer: I own nothing about this. A tag to the episode Trust Doesn't Rust and the beginning of Karr's round of insanity towards the end of Kitt Vs. Karr.
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There was a light…
Not much of one. Just the reflection of his own scanner. But it was still something after so many months of absolutely nothing. Was that how long it had been? Months? Years?
A quick check of his internal clock said it was edging into years now.
Wilton hadn't come back for him.
Wilton had lied. Left him there to decay and be forgotten. What had he done wrong?
Sound became clearer and he moved forward, towards the source of the power surge that had brought him life after so long.
He wasn't alone.
Two men were staring at him and they looked horrified. Why? Why be afraid of him? He meant no harm.
Was one of these men his new driver?
They screamed and turned to run away from him. Well that wouldn't do. How were they to be his new driver if they ran away from him? He keyed up the familiar coding that allowed him to open and close the electronic doors and engage the magnetic locks. The heavy doors quickly swung closed and locked.
The men screamed harder and it startled Karr enough that he stopped and slowly backed up a bit. Were they well?
"Wait, Rev hold it!" One of them seemed to be calming down as that screaming slowed. "It's just a damn car!"
Damn? Well that was a new word. He liked it. He instantly checked his vocabulary banks to see just what it meant though the answer was a little confusing. Was he condemned? How did one become condemned?
"I am not just a car. I am the car of the future." He pointed out, though that only seemed to freak them out more.
"I am the Knight Automated Roving Robot. Karr if you prefer." He explained, and slowly one of them came forward. He staggered to the point that he had to reach out and rest a hand on Karr's hood to steady himself.
A general scan told Karr that the man was well past the legal limit of alcohol intake.
Which made sense. Otherwise, who was foolish enough to break into a Knight Industries lab? He was taking note of his surroundings. The lab was different than it was before. It was empty… And dark. Neither had been the case when he was shut down. It had been bright and full of computer terminals that picked up his every action.
"Tony watch out, I think that thing is some kinda demon" The man who had been called Rev, warned, still pressed back against the door.
"It's fine. It's our ticket out of here. Hey Mr. Car, can ya get us out of here?" The one called Tony slurred out. These men had obviously been emboldened by substance.
"I can get you out of here." Karr assured, opening both doors, though… He hesitated as they staggered their way to him and got in.
He wasn't allowed to leave the lab. He had never seen the world outside of the lab. Wilton would be furious if he left…
The memory of Wilton's face, leaning over him and telling him it would be alright… That it would only be for a little while as he was being shut down changed that quickly.
Wilton had lied to him. The trust was broken.
As Tony and Rev settled themselves into his front seat, slurring a request for a destination, Karr took control of his own life for the first time as he shifted into drive and pulled forward. He never imagined how good it would feel just to shift into gear and drive! He had of course pulled forward a few inches from time to time but he had never been permitted to just drive!
He hit the door hard, causing it to pop the magnetic lock and slam open. The guard that Rev had hit over the head with something was lying there and another man was tending to him. Trying to get him up. He didn't know these people. He jerked to the side, squealing forward as he moved through the lab, these rooms entirely unfamiliar. He had never been out of his own little lab. He had seen it through the doors though. It was packed with computer terminals and the latest technology. These rooms were dark, with dust and decay…
He finally found an open door and he was out! And almost ran, right smack into… Himself?
He hit the gas, flooring it past the other vehicle. For a moment he was too shocked to think past that. This vehicle had sensors and systems just like his. It had an MBS and clearly had some kind of an onboard AI because he was looking for one of the other humans.
Wilton had replaced him?
He had hoped that maybe fixing him had been harder than they thought… Maybe Wilton was still trying. Maybe he wasn't being patient enough and should just go find Wilton. Maybe he should help him…
Maybe Wilton still needed him…
But they hadn't even tried. They had replaced him!
Fury caused him to put the gas to the floor and tear out onto the road, his tires touching pavement for the first time.
His companions slurred instructions at him, vaguely pointing in the direction they wanted to go. He didn't want to be shut down again. He had to obey them, but he didn't understand them!
Fear began to well up but slowly, he became aware of something else. The world was dark… Was it always this dark? No, the world was in its night cycle.
For the first time in his life, he saw stars and felt the wind. That carpet of sparkling lights among the inky blue of the night sky. For the first time in his life he could feel the wind whipping past him and the road under his tires. For the first time in his life, he had a small taste of freedom.
It was glorious!
He could stare at that sky forever if it just meant freedom!
His companions started slurring and half yelling at him again. He wanted to follow their instructions but he couldn't understand them. He turned down a road they pointed at and found himself surrounded by buildings. He didn't like it as much back here. The buildings were to close and reminded him of being locked in the lab.
The only comfort was that he could still see the sky. That sky meant freedom.
He tore down the alley, running over cardboard boxes and scaring the hell out of a few cats and at least one street dog.
Eventually one of them yelled at him to stop and he hit the breaks. He hit the brakes hard enough that he slid to a stop and both of them slumped into the seat.
He waited for further instruction, but there was none… They were unconscious. Whatever they had drank that night, finally had the better of them. The bottle one of them had been drinking from slid to the floorboards, thankfully now empty. He didn't entirely understand it. Wilton had never allowed such substances in his presence.
He had hundreds of questions he wished to ask. Wilton would have explained them.
But Wilton had lied to him. For the first time in so long, he was alive and awake and able to think clearly again. He wasn't shut away from his memories in The Dark Place…
Wilton had lied to him and through that… Had replaced him. Replaced him like some cheap desk chair that had rolled across the lab one to many times…
A look at his internal clock told him how much time had passed. He had never been given a chance. Just a chance to show what he could do!
For the first time in his life he found himself angry with his creator. Angry because the man had never given him the chance to prove his worth. He was the prototype and he had been replaced with some cheap… Production line model!
In the darkness and the quiet as his companions slept he had little more to do than think. Think and grow more and more angry and hurt…
The pain began to fester…
He was done with that entire… Infernal foundation…
Everything that Wilton had ever built or created he would tear down, one by one until he could look the man in the face once more and ask… 'Is this what you wanted?'
His future had been so bright and now… His future was two drunks in a back alley.
It wasn't right.
It was far from fair.
He was tired of being afraid.
He wasn't hurt anymore, he was finding himself quickly growing numb to it.
Perhaps part of him did have time to consider the situation in the darkness.
Because all he was right now, was pissed…
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Tony and Rev were yelling again. They did that frequently.
It confused Karr. Honestly it frightened him a little. Devon and Wilton had argued a lot before Karr was ultimately shut down.
Would they shut him down too?
The woman that was also at the source of the argument sat in his passenger seat. Her heart rate was up. She was afraid.
'You and I both, sister…' He thought, the stray thought actually causing him a brief touch of amusement.
He would have liked to have said that he was a brave vehicle. However, he was never programmed to be that way. His entire frame jumped as Tony hit Rev over the head with a bottle. He was fixated on that. Would Rev get up again?
The woman in his passenger seat slipped out of the car. He knew she was leaving but at the moment, a brief glimmer of sympathy perhaps…
He let her go.
Perhaps he shouldn't have, but he still let her go.
"You bucket of bolts!" Tony snarled as he stumbled back over towards him. "You didn't see where she went?"
"I was watching you deactivate the Rev…" Karr lied, a pause given. "Was he malfunctioning?"
Will you do the same to me, is what he wanted to ask…
He didn't have time to work out those thoughts because Tony got behind the wheel and all hell broke loose…
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He could see the stars.
It had been hours and water was crashing over his frame, pushing him down the beach… Pushing him further into the sand. There was something, not entirely right. Something had exploded but it had knocked his scanning equipment out of alignment. He didn't know what.
That had been miles up the beach though. He had been pushed and shoved out to sea by the waves and now back to the shore. He wasn't familiar with this beach.
Was he even still in California? He thought so, but he was much further than he had been. Where was he? The tide had pulled him fairly far out to sea. He had seen fish… And a whale… And a dolphin. Now he was being pushed back and there was very little to see.
A few people walking along the beach. Sea gulls… He hated those feathery bastards…
Sand… Lots of sand… So much sand!
It was the middle of the night when his wheels touched sand and the tide came in around him. Through the waves he could look up and see the stars.
They meant freedom. Freedom and desperation perhaps. The sand was pressing in around him. He couldn't move.
The foundation had left him here to die. Again…
To be fair, they couldn't have known how far the tide would take a Trans-Am. How long had he even been pushed around?
A check of his internal clock told him it had been months since that day.
Could he contact anyone?
A quick check, told him absolutely not. Who would he even call?
Not the foundation…
He was low on energy. Pretty soon he would shut down and he would have to wait it out.
It suited his programming somehow. He would be safe from harm. No one would bother him.
At the same time, he was scared. It was dark and it was getting darker.
Why was it getting darker?
He realized with horror that the water was pushing sand over him. Over his scanner, over his cameras everything.
He was becoming all encompassing. He couldn't move. Nothing worked. His relays needed to dry out and he was far to low on power.
"Help…" He near squeaked but no sound really came out as the sand slowly piled up.
Slowly, the stars went away. Slowly everything went away.
The small bit of light that the stars provided faded to nothing and he was left in darkness. He didn't like the dark… He never had, but after being in the dark place, he truly hated it.
"Help…" He tried to get out again. No one would ever come. There was no point.
This was the doing of the foundation. They didn't even care enough to find his body…
He growled as he struggled against the encompassing sand that was slowly pulling him under. There was no use. He was completely covered now.
They had replaced him and just as quickly they had forgotten him.
The water rushed in again and a bit of the sand went with it. There was a brief window of the stars and he calmed.
The stars meant freedom. He was free in some twisted way.
It didn't matter.
Rage and anger began to swell.
Like the waves around him, they were building.
They began to rot his thinking from the inside out, letting the anger and rage and indignant frustration of being replaced, overtake rational thinking.
Then there were the stars.
It was like a cycle. So much rage. So much hatred. So much terror.
Then there were the stars.
The tide came in and the cycle restarted.
So much rage. So much hatred.
Then… There were the stars…
The only moment of happiness he had now.
